I.5. Nostratic

For these versions, common words found in both Dolgopolsky (2008) and Bomhard (2018) are used, with Nostratic roots shared at least by Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Semitic, whenever possible.

Proto-Nostratic

paka helat

paka hnə ˀilat cara,

helat ʕaḳa;

ṭu pali parau̯aden,

ṭu magi ṭula,

ṭu cala mana ṭulan

paku helatu̯aka:

“kunuk galša,

mara ʕaḳan helat ˀorgan.”

helatu̯akat: “ḳulu paka!

kunun galšat ʕaḳan,

maru, ˀadu, pakat cara

ˀon tapa kapa ˀu̯araša

u̯a pakat cara hnə ˀilaša.”

ṭa ḳulat paku paṭan puka.

Notes:

· Reconstruction of precise dentals (*t vs. *d vs. *ṭ/th etc.), occlusives (*g vs. *k vs. *kw vs. *ḳ/kh, etc.), etc. is often impossible, because there is no common phonology agreed upon. Still more difficult is to reconstruct a common vocalism.

The reconstructions of the Muscovite school, although heir of the oldest tradition in Nostratic reconstruction, may be deeply flawed in the sense that an old, non-laryngeal, Brugmannian reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European is still used, so that little has changed since Illich-Svitych’s pioneer work. Proto-Indo-European is without doubt the best reconstructed proto-language to date, and remains the main model for any older proto-language, thus any error in its reconstruction implies a false start for an ancestral stage.

Also, the exclusion of Afroasiatic from the Nostratic family, and its inclusion within a ‘Borean’ group along with other languages (viz. various Amerindian, African, etc.) to develop the common vocabulary makes the lexicon in The Tower of Babel Etymological Database Project at <http://starling.rinet.ru/> potentially still more speculative than a Nostratic etymology already is.

Allan Bomhard’s own reconstructions of Proto-Afroasiatic roots (and phonology) seem to be biased toward Proto-Indo-European and Nostratic roots, hence risking circular reasoning. On the other hand, his bold take on precise Nostratic vocalism and consonantism and the inclusion of Proto-Afrasian as just another Nostratic branch at the same level as Eurasiatic, Dravidian, and Kartvelian, may give a more precise picture of what a Nostratic language could have been like thousands of years ago.